The test score racket

12:28 AM,
Apr. 6, 2013

Eugene Robinson

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Eugene Robinson

It is time to acknowledge that the fashionable theory of school reform - requiring that pay and job security for teachers, principals and administrators depend on their students' standardized test scores - is at best a well-intentioned mistake, and at worst nothing but a racket.

I mean that literally. Beverly Hall, the former superintendent of the Atlanta public schools, was indicted on racketeering charges Friday for an alleged cheating scheme that won her more than $500,000 in performance bonuses. Hall, who retired two years ago, is also accused of theft, conspiracy and making false ...